News

Balfour Beatty is now working on a seven year, €323.94 million (£245 million) highways maintenance contract in the UK. This package of works is for Coventry City Council, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council and Warwickshire County Council. There is an option to extend the contract for a further three years. Balfour Beatty Living Places will work in partnership with the three Councils. This collaborative arrangement in the local authority highways market will provide a single source service provider acr

A new report by the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) shows that older motorists favour tighter health and ability tests on the over-70s to drive. The IAM report, Keeping Older Drivers Safe and Mobile, shows that most older drivers agree with tighter rules on checking health and suitability, even if those checks could take them off the road themselves.

Spanish infrastructure firm Abertis is keen to develop a series of projects in Chile. In all the projects are worth over US$900 million. Abertis has presented these projects to Chile's Ministry of Public Works. This move follows the acquisition by Abertis of the remaining 50% stock holding in the country's Autopista Central motorway concession. This was bought from Canadian fund manager Alberta Investment Management (AIMCo) for over $1 billion.

The latest data from the Danish Road Directorate (Vejdirektoratet) reveals that the country’s road safety continues to improve. The figures for 2015 reveal that road fatality levels have been reduced further. The data shows that in 2015 just 167 people were killed on the country’s roads, a further reduction from previous years. The number seriously injured or killed during December 2015 fell to 289, the second lowest figure for the past 10 years. The Danish Road Directorate predicts that safety measures are

Jakarta’s chronic congestion problems look set to be eased slightly with the construction of two new elevated roads. These will be built over the Semanggi interchange in South Jakarta and work will commence in April 2016, with copmletion expected in 2017. The new links will connect South Jakarta's Kebayoran Baru and Ratu Plaza, East Jakarta's Cawang and West Jakarta's Grogol. The Japanese contractor building the new elevated links has also sourced the necessary funding for the work.

Construction work for a new bridge spanning the Danube River and linking Hungary and Slovakia has been delayed. The work will now commence on the project in September 2016. The new bridge will connect the town of Komarom in Hungary with Komarno in Slovakia. The project was delayed temporarily by changes to procurement rules in Hungary. The bridge is expected to be complete in the second quarter of 2019 and a portion of the funding for the new bridge will be provided by EU sources.

Plans are progressing on a major tunnel project in Peru. The concession for the La Molina tunnel project in Lima has been awarded to Spanish firm OHL. The project will cost US$521 million. The 12.2km project includes building the 1.5km tunnel as well as sections of road and a number of viaducts. The new route will connect the districts of La Molina and Miraflores and will run through Surco, Surquillo and San Borja. OHL Concesiones Peru will carry out the technical studies for the project in 2017. Constructi

Loans worth a total of US$243 million will help pay for the rebuilding of the Chinsali-Nakonde road in Zambia. The loans are being provided by the African Development Bank (AfDB) based in Ivory Coast and Africa Growing Together Fund. The AfDB is offering a loan of $193 million for the project while the Africa Growing Together Fund is offering $50 million. The Chinsali-Nakonde road is of key importance for trade as it connects Tanzania and Zambia.

Indonesia’s toll road expansion programme is continuing to grow. Bidding is commencing for three toll road projects; the 83.9km Serang-Panimbang route in Banten, the 58.6km Cileunyi-Sumedang-Dawuan (Cisumdawu) route in West Java, the 29.3km Legundi-Bunder route in East Java.

Plans for a new bridge link connecting Argentina and Uruguay are being developed. A comprehensive set of feasibility studies for the new bridge is being carried out that covers technical, environmental and financial factors. There are three existing road connections spanning the Uruguay River that link these nations but this new bridge will improve transport links between the two. The feasibility study is costing US1 million but the estimated cost of the bridge construction has not yet been revealed. The fe

Chinese contractors will construct two sections of Pakistan’s Peshawar-Karachi Motorway (PKM) project. This six-lane highway will be a high-speed access-controlled connection between the port city of Karachi and other major urban locations in Pakistan. China Railway 20 Bureau Group Corporation (CR20G) will carry out construction work on the 230km Lahore-Abdul Hakeem section of the highway. Meanwhile China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) the 393km Multan-Sukkur section of the route. The PK

Weissenhorn-based company PERI has bought the Silvergreen site in Günzburg. Peri said the location will complement its main plant in Weissenhorn because expansion possibilities there are very limited.

The Indonesian Government is looking to source funding for a key highway project from the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). The funding will be used for the highway connecting North and East Kalimantan. This project is expected to cost US$250 million.

The Western Road Usage Charge Consortium (WRUCC) has awarded a contract to D’Artagnan Consulting to develop a roadmap for 11 US states to evaluate charging for road use. The move has come about as road user charging (RUC) is seen as having potential by US state government officials as a long-term

Belgium is considering tolling options as a mean to fund necessary road and tunnel developments and upgrades. The Brussels region is expected to spend between €500 million and €1 billion in order to update a series of key tunnel connections, with tolling being considered to raise a part of the funds required. A toll could be applied for the Léopold II tunnel during peak hours. According to Belgian consultancy company Stratec, traffic congestion could be reduced in Brussels by implementing an area charge dur